Great Weeks Reek of Productivity

Ten days ago I offered a Productivity Checklist for the best way to end a Friday. Key to the process was setting up things at the end of day — ordering tasks by priority, putting things where you most often use them, and planning the first thing you’ll accomplish on Monday.

Did you try it? I thought perhaps not, but even if you set a plan that ended your Friday neatly and optimized Monday for productivity, take care that you don’t walk in to your workspace and undo all that you’ve set ready to start this week in a great way

Start with Peak Productivity

Being able to kick in peak productivity on a Monday or any other day is function of focus and few steps found in this checklist.

1. Start your “real work” a hour later on Monday. Most folks don’t want to interact with you first thing Monday. Invest in yourself and your own productivity. Make a commitment reward yourself as soon as you accomplish the simple steps of this checklist. When possible, avoid setting up meetings before 10a.m.

2. Allow yourself 10 minutes for an office check. Organize everything on your desk. Put things away. Lay out things that still need attending to. Are the things you use most closest to where you use them? If not, move them, so that they will be. Are the files you access most on your computer only one click away? If not, as you work, move them so that they will be.

3. Allow 10 minutes more to scan your incoming email. Look long enough to know whether a dire emergency is waiting your response. Schedule a time in your calendar to answer the rest.

4. Make a realistic plan for the week. Plan no more than 3 important tasks per day. Schedule no more than 5 hours of independent work. Leave 1 hour for your social networking investment. You’ll have the other two hours for the inevitable interruptions, phone calls, emails, and meetings that steal time during your day. If you find extra time at the end of the day, you can use it get ahead on tomorrow.

5. Order tasks what you can get done fastest first. Two reasons support this: It starts you with a quick sense of accomplishment and you’re able to pass on what you’ve finished –which means that someone else can be starting on what was your task one as you move to your task two.

6. If your habit is to get in early to stop by the water cooler or spend some time on Twitter, keep your investment working for you. Put fences around the time you’ll be spending getting inspired by socializing or you might find that it undoes your performance energy.

The biggest part of kicking in productivity is knowing what we want to do and when we want to get it done. Taking time in the morning to plan a productive day immediately can put us in the mindset to our world flying high for the win!

Whether your workspace is in another building or in your kitchen, you’ll find that peak productivity will kick once you’ve outlined the tasks you want to accomplish in a realistic fashion that fits that time you have to do them. Once you get into the habit, you might find that a 30-Minute Strike Force Strategy may be enough to keep you going.

Great Weekends Start with Productivity

Friday! Finally!
On a short week, it can seem to take even longer to get here and we can end up with a Friday that seems jammed packed with things we’re still trying to get done. And before we know it the weekend will again be upon us …

Don’t let it sneak up on you!

Rather than fall into this weekend still working, start a new productivity habit.
Set a plan that will end your Friday neatly, get your Monday optimized for productivity in the very best way so that your weekend can be your own.

It may take some practice to get it down perfectly, but if you get the habit of this checklist, you’ll find that you start your weekends and your Mondays more sweetly.

Productivity – The Best Way to End a Friday Checklist

1. End your “real work” a half-hour early on Friday. Most folks don’t want to interact with you late on Friday anyway. If you need that half-hour to finish your work, start next week by planning to finish a half-hour earlier.

2. Use that half-hour to organize everything on your desk. Put things away. Lay out things that still need attending to. Mark what needs to be done. Make a to-do list, if that’s your way.

3. Make a plan for next week–at the least, decide what you will tackle first on Monday and what your three most important goals will be.

4. Do an office check. Are the things you use most closest to where you use them? If not, move them, so that they will be. Are the files you access most on your computer only one click away? If not, move them so that they will be.

5. Order the Monday tasks by putting what you can get done fastest first. Do this for two reasons. It will start your week with a quick sense of accomplishment, and you’ll be able to pass on what you finished–that means that when you move on to task two, someone else can be starting on what was your task one.

Then consider the week closed, leave the office at work, give your brain a break, and have a weekend. What a great way to promote yourself and your brand to anyone who walks by on their way home for the weekend. It says a lot for your personal brand — almost everyone wishes their office looked like it could be in a magazine . . . Even if the only one it says it to is you — that’s plenty.

Whether you work in a building away from home or in your bedroom, a productivity boost will find you on Monday walking back into a space that’s ready to work in.

The idea is to end work on Friday so that if you open your on the weekend you might actually be refueling — talking to friends or watching a movie — rather than cleaning up details left over from the week you just left. Having a headstart on Monday can free the mind space to enjoy Saturday and Sunday.

Editing for Quality

It’s true that every writer needs an editor. We all know that I sure do. In textbook publishing, we say that every writer really needs two–a content editor and a copyeditor. The first makes sure that the logic and ideas make sense. The second makes sure that the work is readable. Readable doesn’t mean much, if the ideas are all over the place.

Content editing doesn’t need to take bundles of time. You’ve gotten the ideas onto the paper. Print the post out and read it. A pause for a content edit makes sure that your information is accurate, relevant, and accessible. Why not make sure your ideas move in a way that readers can follow them? It can only make you look smarter.

For that purpose, I offer you this basic content editor’s quality checklist.

Content Editor’s Quality Checklist

Does the work have a clear focus on one topic?

Does the introduction grab interest and offer a clear purpose for reading?

Are the facts accurate?

Does the work follow a logical plan from beginning to end?

Does the body of the work present well-ordered paragraphs of main ideas with relevant, supporting details?

Does the conclusion leave readers feeling satisfied, feeling a sense of conclusion now that they have reached the end and know what to do with the information?

Use this checklist for the content edit first. Then move on to copyediting — making sure that the spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct. Do the two tasks separately. Trying to do both at once is like trying to have dinner with two dates at two different restaurants — not a good idea.

Use the content editor’s quality checklist and you’ll be that much more confident that your reader won’t get lost looking for the forest among the trees. Now whether they’ll agree with you . . .

A successful blogger is always asking the question, How does this serve my readers?

To many of us design is the fun and “creative” part of building our blog, talking and tweaking design can take up more time than writing content–if we let it. A checklist can help keep my creativity at uptimum levels and keep my focus on how my choices will ensure my readers enjoy their stay well enough to return again and again.

Blog Design Checklist.

1. Title and Subtitle: Are they here? Are they clear? Could any reader understand what they mean? Turn off the blinkers, the sliders and slinkers. They distract me when I’m trying to read your post.
2. Bio: Can I find it? Does it tell enough about you that I feel a connection with the person behind the screen? Did you give me a way to contact you, if I have a genuine reason to? Is there a photo, or at least a visual, there to represent you?
3. Fonts/Text: Are they readable? Are there too many? too few? Are they in readable colors? Is there moving, blinking, twinkling text to distract me and annoy me? When it comes to color, size, and number less is always more.
4. Comments/Permalinks/Trackbacks/Email: I expect to find these after the post? Please don’t get creative and make me look all over to find them.
5. Navigation: Can I find my way around in a glance? Can I find your Classic Posts? Do your links really work? Is it easy to get back to the home page? I don’t like feeling lost.
6. Sound/Gadgets/Plug-ins: Do they really need to be there? Are you sure they won’t irritate me? When in doubt, take them out.
7. Technical Issues: Does the blog load fast in my browser? Does it load accurately? You may hate IE but most folks still use it. If you pretend they don’t exist. You can be sure for you they won’t.
8. Images: Are they clean, clear and crisp? Are the files compressed so they load quickly? Fuzzy pictures hurt my eyes.
9. Organization: Does the page feel in proportion? Do things seem where they belong? Is there enough white space and a lack of clutter? I like a little room to breathe.
10. Marketing: Is the presentation of subscriptions, ads, and other marketing integrated into the design? Do ads become too interruptive? Are there pop-ups or pop-unders? Ads that make themselves too annoying will drive me from your blog forever. No pop-ups or pop-unders–they break your trust with me.

Use this checklist to remind yourself not to let too much design creativity take the “fun” out of reading your blog. Then get started. Have fun tweaking.

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